As for an image pickup apparatus, such as a digital camera which captures an image of an object with an image sensor (e.g., a charged coupled device (CCD) or the like), a contrast method is generally adopted as an auto focus (AF) method. The contrast method uses contrast of an object image to achieve auto focus. Lenses of a camera are controlled to obtain a maximum contrast from the image signals so as to automatically focus on the object using the maximum contrast position as a best focusing point. Focusing the camera this way takes time and an opportunity for good photos may be missed.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a camera with a faster focusing process for auto focus.